Social licence in New Zealand—what is it?

Figures & data

Table 1. Frequency of SLO in documents analysed by industry.

	Aquaculture	Forestry	Quarrying/mining	Energy	Agriculture	Other
Media	8	0	2	35	3	0
Industry	1	3	2	3	4	1
Government	1	0	0	0	1	0
Academia	2	0	0	0	0	1

Table 2. Summary of specific users of SLO, the key characteristics of their use and their application of the term.

	Academia	Government	NGOs	Media	Agriculture	Aquaculture	Forestry	Mining	Gas/energy
Who		Central government	Environmental	Local and national media	Peak bodies; Environmental groups	Government; Environmental groups	Peak bodies	Individual mining and quarrying operations	Peak bodies; Individual corporations
Specific users	Planning and Māori context	Primary Industries Minister	EDS	Print media; Web media; News releases	Hort NZ; Fish and Game		Forest Owners Association; Professional organisations	Straterra	PEPANZ; Todd Energy
Key characteristics	Trust building lies at the heart of SLO; Partnership	Sustainable production; Respect and understanding of communities; Gaining support and trust of the public	Acceptance from the broader community; Best practice	None specific to media	Tacit acknowledgement of SLO	SLO is embedded in planning regulations;	Differentiated between operations;	None described	SLO is embedded in planning regulations
How is it applied?	Elaborating the meaning of SLO and putting it in a context that New Zealanders may better understand	Defining SLO in their vision; Informing industry they need an SLO; Linking SLO to economic development; Giving cognisance and legitimacy	Critique of (energy) company operations	Conveying others’ views of SLO	Risk management; Industry wide rather than single operation; Market access and brand protection	Environmental protection—New Zealand as a place for everyone—shared resource; Risk management; Market access and brand protection	Belief on some level that there is a SLO, but looking to discover what it really takes to gain and maintain a SLO	Engaging with stakeholders before things become a problem; Negotiating together to resolve issues; Recognises differences between operations and/or regions	Risk management; Compliance